Seventeen MCN launches with nine original shows

Meredith Foster and Lisa Schwartz are two of the five vloggers who will host their own shows on Seventeen's revamped YouTube channel.

Hearst Corporation’s Seventeen magazine last week debuted its multi-channel network (MCN), which is being managed by AwesomenessTV.

Covering a range of topics relevant to teen girls (fashion, beauty, health, hot guys, etc.) the revamped network launched with nine original shows, five of which are hosted by popular YouTube talent including Meredith Foster (StilaBabe09), who has a segment called DIY Your Life.The first episode of Foster’s show launched Jan. 29 and by Tuesday had been watched close to 125,000 times. Another surefire hit will be a series called Hot Guy Showdown, hosted by comedian Lisa Schwartz (Lisbug) (pictured in screengrab).

Other vloggers and programs they host are, singer/rapper Becky G (Promposals), Meghan Rosette (What’s in My Fridge?) and Heart Defensor (Fashion Remix). The rest of the initial line-up of shows includes Seventeen Daily, Beauty Smarties, andSeventeen on the Scene. Those will be hosted by different beauty and fashion influencers who report for the mag.

The partnership between Seventeen, which reaches more than 12 million readers in print every month, and AwesomenessTV was first announced last October. In addition to producing content for the Seventeen channel, Dreamworks Animation-owned AwesomenessTV will also manage Seventeen’s MCN, which will provide a platform for teen girls to produce and share their own channels. AwesomenessTV has 81,000 teen and tween-oriented YouTube channels that reach 31 million subscribers. Being able to connect with that kind of reach is a smart way for the publisher to expand its online video presence to its target demo.

It will be interesting to see the trajectory of the Seventeen YouTube channel as the new series starts to take off. For the last two weeks of January, the channel has seen an average increase of 654 subscribers and 24,599 video views per day, according to Social Blade stats.